How To: Backup Your Groove Account

Ask anyone who works with Groove about Backups..."Well (deep breath) it depends." That's not a bad thing, it's just a thing. You've got options: account backup; other users in the workspace; SharePoint integration; the DataBridge and the Archive Service; 3rd party backup tools...

Here's what I do...

My Groove account is backed up to the Management Server. If my pc fails, or if I simply get a new pc, my account can be brought over to the new pc instantly and easily. Once we fix a certain account expiration behavior, I can easily create a backup of the account myself and keep it in a safe place.

You might be surprised by what is in that account backup, and what isn't. Account backups contain the key ingredients that make my groove identity unique - my public and private keys that I use to communicate securely with other users. It also contains a list of the spaces that I belong to. The account does not contain any of your instant message history, nor the workspace data - not the files, discussions, chat. Nothing but Meta data about the space is getting backed up by the manager.

So if the account backup doesn't contain the workspace data, how is that data backed up?

Most of my workspaces have other members in them. If my machine fails, I can restore the workspace from other members, or from my other pc, with two clicks. In many cases, the files are being synched up to a SharePoint site. Not only does the SharePoint site offer a convenient way to federate the content, providing access beyond the reach of the workspace, but that comforting redundancy makes it easy to get my hands on important documents.

In the few workspaces where I am the only member, I trust that both pc's won't bust at the same time.

That simple approach, automatically restoring synched data from another member, another PC, or from SharePoint, is very powerful for the user, and perhaps liberating for the IT shop that no longer has to manage backup and restore functions. It might also cause some heartburn about backing up corporate data - if that's the case, don't worry, a whitepaper on the topic is in the works.

Stay tuned...

Link to this Article:
https://blogs.technet.com/groove/archive/2007/02/20/how-to-backup-your-groove-account.aspx